Catheters, such as standard peripheral I.V. catheters and the like, are commonly used in the medical field and by clinicians to introduce pharmaceuticals and other treatments or medications into a patient's blood stream. Catheters are also useful for permitting various patient fluids to be drained or collected. Accordingly, various technologies have been developed or otherwise evolved over time for placing catheters into a patient's vasculature. For example, common devices include introducer needles or guide wires to assist a clinician in inserting and placing a catheter into a patient's vasculature. In addition, a needle hub used in connection with such introducer needles or guide wires and is handled directly by the user according to common practice.
Typically, the individual package is a separate device from the catheter unit and needle assembly. A clinician must remove and discard the packaging associated with one or more devices in order to place the catheter into the patient's vasculature. In an emergency situation, or in a situation where time is critical, this step of removing the device from its package adds time. Additionally, once the user removes the device from its packaging it may fall out of their grasp causing contamination, as well as damage and/or loss of the device. This loose packaging also causes added waste to a medical environment already cluttered with waste. Furthermore, once the catheter placement device is ready and following use of the same, the clinician is at risk of needle stick injuries both before and after the introducer needle is contaminated from use. As such, the clinician must take caution to prevent such injuries. Likewise, once the catheter placement device is ready, the sterility of the catheter is subject to compromise if not used immediately and the clinician must cautiously guard against the same.
Following use of the catheter placement device, the introducer needle and needle hub must be properly discarded for disposal using and appropriate biohazard container. The individual package may simply be discarded in any waste disposal bin. If the introducer needle does not feature a sharps injury protection feature, on the other hand, the needle point continues to pose a risk of needle stick injuries and blood borne illnesses. As such, the introducer needle must be carefully disposed of in an appropriate sharps container. In an emergency situation, the clinician must exercise particular caution to prevent needle stick injuries prior to the proper disposal of the introducer needle. Moreover, a separate sharps container is necessary.
In some instances, particularly in emergency situations, the catheter placement device is subject to inadvertently being gripped incorrectly such that the introducer needle and catheter are not oriented for proper placement by the clinician. In such circumstances, the clinician must take time and care to ensure that the catheter placement device is both properly gripped and properly oriented in order to correctly place the catheter in a patient's vasculature.
Thus, while techniques currently exist that are used for placing a catheter into a patient's vasculature, challenges still exist. Accordingly, it would be an improvement in the art to augment or even replace current techniques with other techniques.